I put in for a repeat prescription for Methotrexate on Monday. I had my bloods done at the end of September and when I picked up the results was told everything normal.

But I got a phone call yesterday from a Dr who said that my neutrophil count is too low and that I should have stopped MTX for a week and had another blood test. Nobody told me that, nothing on my print out. So I am off MTX for two weeks until my next blood test on 24 October.

I would feel very unhappy about this. I think you should take it up with the surgery as to why you were told it was OK and then told it was not. It would make me feel a lack of trust in the information that I was given.

Part of the problem is that I have no lead Dr at the moment. The lovely one that knows about RA (married to a Rheummy) is on baby leave and my lead Dr has just joined here. I have an appointment with the senior partner on a different matter in a couple of weeks and I will bring it up then.

That's just not on Jacqui. If your GP Surgery do your drug monitoring bloods when there's an anomaly you should be contacted the day they receive the results, it's common practice, it's flagged up for goodness sake! Mine are taken by one of the practice nurses & whichever one it is then takes responsibility for checking my results & if there's a problem she informs me so I can halt injecting, see my GP or go in for a re-test if necessary.

Was it a receptionist who handed them to you & said they were ok, if so I hope you've remembered who it was because the PM needs to have a word. If the values aren't on your print out It might be an idea to find out what they are so you can check them yourself when you collect it. Lab's differ but I have mine in my monitoring book.

Everybody should beware of "normal" and "acceptable"! Do they mean normal for a fit athlete or normal or acceptable for someone loaded with biologics and anti inflammatories. If it's your own doctor that you regularly see and trust then you can accept these phrases. They know you well and how your illness affects you. A different doctor or nurse doesn't and will only go on the figures and information in front of them. We should always ask for a simplified statement of our blood levels and keep a record of them like we used to with our methotrexate booklet and we could see for ourselves when things change and compare them with the way we feel.